Deeply Rooted (When I Read Your Word)

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 3:1-5 1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Man... Paul is an honest dude, huh? The truth here is that Paul gives us a great example here of what love looks like sometimes! Love isn't always going to look like being supportive of someone and their actions. Love, the kind of love that Christ teaches, means pushing each other toward Jesus, even if it looks like harsh truth! But what truth is Paul trying t...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:20-21 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”     WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? This is the end of the long quote that Paul said to Peter and his posse who were hating on the Gentiles and trying to make them practice Jewish law, and it spits FLAMES.  Paul made it clear yesterday that we aren't saved by our actions, and when we are saved, we live differently. And today, he makes it clear that when we are living differently (not rebuilding the same tower we just destroyed), it's because of the Holy Spirit living in us! But, when we slip into believing that there's something that WE need to do in order to be right with God, then we're basically saying that Jesus didn't need to die. ...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:15-19 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.  17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.  19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? If you remember yesterday, we talked about how Paul called out Peter for trying to force the Gentile Christians to take up Jewish practices. This next section covers Paul continuing his argument against Peter's actions, and it mentions 2 big points: being justified by faith and rebuil...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:11-14 11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.   14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Quick review: Cephas=Peter, James=brother of Jesus, Gentiles=nonJews, Circumcised=Jews, Barnabas=Paul's close friend, Paul=the one who wrote what we read above.  So this is what just went down: Peter came over to where Paul was and he was having...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:9-10 9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? After Jesus went back up to heaven, there were 3 people seen as the biggest leaders, or "pillars," of the early church: James, John, and Cephas (who we know a lot better as Peter). James was the younger brother of Jesus, while John and Peter were two of the closest people in Jesus's life. The earliest groups of believers looked up to those three as leaders of the future church, and many people looked to them to make decisions toward how the believers of Jesus should be living. That is A LOT of power! But James, John, and Peter were different from most people with power. Instead o...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:6-8 6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.    WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Imagine you wake up today, and bam, you are friends with famous Christians, like Chris Renzema, Phil Wickham, nobigdyl., Shane & Shane, Louie Giglio, Timothy Keller, all the people. Would your understanding of the gospel change just because you went from hanging out with nonfamous people to hanging out with super famous Christian people? It shouldn't...the gospel is the same whether we are professional singers, paid pastors, homeless artists, atheists, schoolteachers, or Musl...

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:1-5 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Yesterday, we learned about how Paul went to Jerusalem and shared the incredible things Jesus did, but today, we are hearing about Paul's second time visiting Jerusalem... 14 years later. Paul talks about a bunch of things that happened ...